Interest in use of wireless mesh networks (WMNs) for new applications such as community wireless networks and networks requiring rapid deployment, as well as for increasing the coverage and capacity of traditional wireless networks, is increasing. The increasing interest in WMNs is primarily due to lowered need for wired infrastructure support, as well as falling prices of wireless components. Disadvantageously, however, although operationally similar to a wired backbone network, use of wireless links in WMNs presents several unique challenges, such as generating sufficient throughput from the system, guaranteeing quality of service for end users, and scaling the network to a large number of nodes. A variety of approaches have been attempted for addressing such challenges.
In one approach, physical layer improvements (e.g., using multiple channels, multiple antennas with space-time coding, and directional antennas for minimizing interference) are implemented for improving the throughput of WMNs. In another existing approach, since standard single-hop media access control (MAC) does not work well in multi-hop networks, existing MAC layers have been redesigned and new MAC layers have been proposed (e.g., a MAC layer tuned to an underlying physical layer). In another existing approach, protocols (e.g., routing protocols such as link quality based routing protocols and network protocols such as new TCP variants) developed for ad hoc mobile networks have been pared down in an effort to render the protocols suitable for use in WMNs.
In spite of some of progress of existing approaches in achieving increased data rates at the physical layer, due to further MAC layer and routing protocol limitations, increased physical layer data rates in multi-hop wireless networks have not resulted in increased throughput at the application layer. Furthermore, such inefficiencies of MAC layers and routing protocols may be exacerbated in moderate-sized networks in which traffic must traverse multiple hops between source and destination. Thus, although some minor improvements in network throughput of WMNs may be achieved by existing processes utilizing dynamic routing and scheduling, such throughput improvements are insufficient for supporting widespread adoption of WMNs.